Nieces & Nephews

Remind me when I say I don’t have anything to post about to just check out my cell phone pics. I am often reminded when I browse through them that I do actually get out sometime or at least have a picture to share.

I have some of the cutest pictures of my niece and nephews that I haven’t shared!

Seriously, could Max and Drew be any cuter?

Max is so funny and at that age that you can totally give him a hard time.  In our house we have one room that is completely empty except for Tommy’s baseball cards, some toys for the kids and some random jerseys. (The epitome of a “junk drawer” only it is a whole room.)

I thought it would be fun to put a jersey on Max and have him go ask his Uncle Tommy if he could keep it.  He was a good sport when Tommy laughed and told him no. Mean uncle.

A few weeks ago my sister and Finley came over to make pumpkin cookies. Isn’t this the sweetest picture? Ha!

In case you are in the market for a pumpkin cookie recipe with glaze, here you go:

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Glaze:

• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.
3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork.
4. To Make Glaze: Combine confectioners' sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed, to achieve drizzling consistency.

Makes 36 cookies

Moving on to Halloween…nothing like being two weeks late.  Drew went as a little German boy and wore the lederhosen we brought Max back from Germany. Honestly, have you seen anything more adorable ever???  Poor Max had strep, so he couldn’t do Halloween. Luckily, I think he was young enough that he didn’t know better.

Finley went as Olivia the Pig. She was not in the mood to have her picture taken, so this is as good as it gets.  She was cute, though!

A better pic of her hat ;).

My sister and Emily threw an adorable party for the kids! Here are some of the details:

Pardon my inability to take a good picture. You can view much better ones here!